For Inez, Johnnie, and Jo Ann: The Unsung (S)heroes of the Civil Rights Movement [View all]

[ismnotwasm]

(An Older article, but I found this on FB and thought I'd share)

Each year in America we dedicate February to Black History Month. During this time, our children are told the stories of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, and many of the other prolific figures in the modern Civil Rights Movement. We celebrate these champions for our rights and equality (as we should), but tend to give very little thought to the other people who were there in the trenches, working alongside the Martins and Rosas to make things happen. There are many “unsung” heroes of the Civil Rights Movement, many of them women.


Today, I would like to take a moment and pay homage to some of these figures as well.

How many of us have ever heard the name Jo Ann Robinson? Robinson was an educator in Montgomery, AL in the 1950’s. She taught English at Alabama State College (now my alma mater, Alabama State University), and was a member of the Women’s Political Council and later the Montgomery Improvement Association. Ms. Robinson was an activist in many political causes of the day, but it was her role in launching the Montgomery Bus Boycott that made her the (s)hero we should be celebrating today.

Upon notification of Mrs. Parks’ arrest, Robinson spent the night in the basement of one of the campus buildings, mimeographing 35,000 handbills that were to be disseminated to Montgomery’s Black community. These handbills were how the community was able to learn so quickly of Parks’ arrest and the subsequent boycott of the buses. Robinson made sure to inform as many people as possible of the boycott, and aided in prolonging the duration of the event far past the initial one day that it had been planned by organizing transportation to the boycotters. In 1960 Ms. Robinson left Montgomery but remained active in political causes aimed at the betterment of treatment for women and Blacks. She died in 1992.


Johnnie Carr is another of the great Civil Rights leaders that hails from Montgomery, AL. She was a childhood friend of Rosa Parks, and was one who aided Parks in becoming involved in civil rights long before the bus boycott in 1955. In 1944, Carr and her husband, along with other friends (which include Parks and her husband) organized to defend a Black woman in Montgomery who had been gang raped by a group of six White men. Mrs. Carr was also one of the key supporters in the movement to bring Dr. King to Montgomery, and is lauded throughout the area as one of the three major Civil Rights icons of the era – the other two being Dr. King and Mrs. Parks.


Read more: http://www.forharriet.com/2013/02/for-inez-johnnie-and-jo-ann-unsung.html#ixzz3fDmIJZLK